The Weekly Wrap: April 12-18

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The Weekly Wrap: April 12-18

AI Fatigue

I came up with this phrase in writing this article, but it turns out that it is a real “thing.” Google’s “AI Overview (!) defines it as “the mental, emotional, and operational exhaustion resulting from the rapid, relentless influx of AI tools, news, and pressure to adopt artificial intelligence in the workplace.” My search turned up pages of articles on the phenomenon.

Within this definition, I think I’m able to locate my own fatigue. For me, it is the relentless news and discussion of AI in the world of books. I receive numerous newsletters, and instead of writing about books and the world of reading, they are writing about AI–reviews written by AI, books written by AI, the fear that writers will be replaced by AI, and the difficulty of detecting AI usage unless human developers and publishers are transparent. And the big element is the theft of intellectual property underneath all this. The work of humans. It needs to be talked about.

We also need to come to some solutions. Rules, tracking, and appropriate compensation of intellectual property. Transparency about AI content and blacklisting and withholding of payments for deception. I’d like to see an emblem used indicating a book or other written content is 100% human.

So why do I press for this? Frankly, I’m tired of all the AI stories (even though I’m posting one this week). I’m eager for us to get back to talking about books. Many of us read to engage with another human. And we often talk with other humans about what we read. We like to hear authors read their works. The world of books and reading is actually a highly social world. I also think it would be helpful to make it an AI-free world. Wouldn’t it be great if the world of books and reading could serve as a retreat for the AI fatigued?

Five Articles Worth Reading

John Cheever is back in the news. His daughter Susan has published a new book exploring the relationship between Cheever’s fiction and his own life. Rands Richards Cooper reviews it in “The Father Behind the Fiction.”

Another name in the news is Lena Dunham. Actually, I knew nothing of her until I learned she is a leading voice of young adulthood in these times. I learned much more about her in Sophie Gilbert’s “What Does Lena Dunham Want to Tell Us?,” a review of Dunham’s new memoir, Famesick.

Speaking of names, Andrew Lawler asks “Who Is Blake Whiting?” “Blake Whiting,” for whom no biography or CV exists published thirteen books on complex historical subjects in one week. Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing publishes his work, yet they missed the lack of biography, and the fact that “Blake Whiting” exceeded their ten book a week limit. Of course, there is no Blake Whiting, but only Amazon knows who is behind this.

Another name I keep coming across is Iris Murdoch, novelist and philosopher. We often speak of “the good, the true, and the beautiful.” In “Iris Murdoch and the Metaphysics of the Good,” Matthew B. Crawford explores Murdoch’s thinking about “the good.”

Finally, many of us like to escape into fantasy to gain perspective on the world in which we live. “4 Great New Fantasy Books to Transport You to Bold New Worlds” introduced me to some fantasy writers I’ve not heard of before.

Quote of the Week

Thornton Wilder, born on April 17, 1897, offers a watchword for all of us:

“Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day.”

Miscellaneous Musings

We are grieving the passing of my wife’s lifelong friend. They met when my wife was three–sixty nine years ago. She was a dedicated educator and reading advocate, working in our state’s Reading Recovery program for many years and teaching the children of children she’d had in classes. She fed my son’s love of reading and writing. And she typified the very best of public school education.

I’ve come to the end of Deb Gregory’s Spiritual Wayfinding. I had the delightful experience of finding my son’s name in the acknowledgements for a lesson on fractals, one of his loves. Deb used to live in our home town, but I am really curious how they crossed paths. A bit of a wayfinding project in itself. By the way, if you like to walk and care about spiritual life, the book creatively combines the two!

Lastly, I bit the bullet and ordered a new Kindle after Amazon’s email (and had it sitting at my door 6:30 the next morning). I’ll still use my old one to read the many books already loaded on it as long as it works. But I decided to go that route to avoid juggling multiple e-book accounts and different platforms, and to be ready when my old Kindle finally bricks. I really like reading on e-readers versus phones or tablets–easier on the old eyes.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: W. David Buschart & Ryan Tafilowski, Worth Doing

Tuesday: David J. Claassen, The Divine Profile

Wednesday: Deborah Gregory, Spiritual Wayfinding

Thursday: Richard Osman, The Bullet That Missed

Friday: Tom Holland, Dominion

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap  for April 12-18.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

Review: The Old Ball Game

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The Old Ball Game

The Old Ball Game, Frank Deford. Grove Press (ISBN: 9780802142474) 2006.

Summary: A dual biography of John McGraw and Christy Mathewson of the New York Giants and their partnership in elevating the game.

Muggsy and Mattie. Those are the nicknames of the subjects of this dual biography of John McGraw and Christy Mathewson. Two men could not be more different. McGraw grew up in a hardscrabble Irish community and was a scrapper as ballplayer and manager. He fought with umpires, often getting ejected from games. Mathewson was the good looking, college-educated pitcher, the poster child for “muscular Christianity.” Surprisingly, they got along so well that they and their wives shared lodgings for many years. The secret, Frank Deford reveals, is that they loved the art and strategy of the game, and not just the physical athleticism.

In this work, veteran sportswriter Frank Deford combines a dual biography of the two men with a study of their unique partnership. Together, they elevated the New York Giants, and professional baseball, from mediocrity to greatness. They were a part of the transformation of baseball from poorly run teams of “ne’er do wells” to increasingly well-managed and more highly disciplined teams. This was accompanied by a move from ramshackle, small stadiums to modern concrete and steel ballparks able to accommodate the larger crowds the game attracted.

But it almost didn’t happen. Specifically, Mathewson signed for a mediocre Giants team under poor ownership. And McGraw loved his wife’s home of Baltimore, coming to manage the new Baltimore franchise in the American League. From 1900 to 1902, Matty showed only glimpses of future greatness, including a no-hitter in 1901. But McGraw was finding out he didn’t fit the manager mold of Ban Johnson, the organizer of the American League. So he was forced out in 1902. Then New York hired him, along with a pitching ace from Baltimore, “Iron Man” McGinnity.

By 1905, they won the pennant and agreed to play in the nascent World Series against the Philadelphia Athletics. While there had been a couple previous “inter-league series” this was the first to garner national attention. Deford takes us through game by game, chronicling the utter mastery of Mathewson over the A’s. He won three shutout games, with Iron Man winning the other in a five game series. McGraw’s Giants dominated.

However, they never repeated this success during Mathewson’s years despite a number of 30 game seasons for Mathewson and pennant wins. They missed out on one pennant due to a baserunning error at the end of a game that would have put the Giants in the Series. Although the winning run scored, the baserunner on first never tagged second base. The error was spotted, the ball thrown to second and the run nullified. While everyone on the Giants insisted he had tagged second, Mathewson stood out by saying he didn’t. Then in 1912, a dropped fly ball cost Matty a victory and the Giants a the Series.

McGraw was know as “The Little Napolean,” not only for his size but his tight control of how his team played. A mark of the confidence he had in Matty is that he was the only one permitted to call his own game, including positioning his fielders. He tried to keep his players sober by tight discipline, including some with drinking problems. Sadly, alcohol would contribute to his own ill health in later years. Players stopped listening to him. He finally hung it up in 1932, dying two years later.

However, tragedy came for Mathewson young. One brother died of tuberculosis, another took his own life. But Mattie kept winning over twenty games a year until 1914, after which his arm gave out. He won only a handful more, finishing with 373 wins. In 1916, McGraw helped Matty get a managing job in Cincinnati. But he wasn’t there long before going to war. He was never the same after, debilitated by gas exposure. His lungs weakened, he contracted tuberculosis. He returned to the Giants as a coach, recovered briefly in 1922, but worsened in 1924, dying the next year on October 7, at the end of the first game of the 1925 World Series.

Deford’s account focuses less on statistics than on the character and achievements of the two men. Together, they helped lift the Giants from mediocrity in 1902 to become a powerhouse team through the rest of the decade. They attracted record crowds to the re-built Polo Grounds. Mathewson defined the art of pitching with his consummate control. McGraw became the model of the tough guy manager, later exemplified by Earl Weaver, and Woody Hayes and Bobby Knight. All in all, it is a fascinating account–a good way to begin another season of baseball.

Review: The Tech Coup

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The Tech Coup

The Tech Coup, Marietje Schaake. Princeton University Press (ISBN: 9780691241197) 2025.

Summary: An expose’ of how tech companies have seized power from government and the danger this poses to the public interest.

At one point last year, big tech firms accounted for 40 percent of the gains in the U.S. stock market. In the last few years, over 150 data centers have popped up on rich farmland in Central Ohio. It seems most residents only woke up to the significance of this boom when they learned this would more than double power demands on our power grid, leading to rising costs for “infrastructure enhancement.” Much of this has been driven by the tremendous resource demands of Artificial Intelligence and cryptocurrency. And there are a number starting to ask how this high tech juggernaut has gained so much literal and cyber space in our culture. Increasingly, many realize a small number of huge tech firms are driving this tech revolution, wanted or not.

Marietje Schaake is a tech insider. As a member of the European Parliament between 2009 and 2019, she was part of an effort to establish guardrails on the burgeoning tech industry’s footprint in Europe. More recently, she moved to Silicon Valley to continue these efforts as international policy director at Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center. She is also an international policy fellow at Stanford’s Institute for Human-centered Artificial Intelligence. The basic message of this book is that these tech industries have engaged in a power grab. They have subverted government efforts to establish guardrails, even while supposedly pleading for them. This poses great risks to our democratic interests and to the interests of the public. And it is a plea for governments to assert their proper role of oversight to protect the public interest.

Schaake opens with how online technology, once a means of free speech, has been transformed into a means of surveillance. It even extends across international borders. Even the smartphones most of us carry are used to track our movements. How has something touted to be so beneficial, and in fact is, also become so dangerous. Schaake argues that this is a result of “the code” of these companies that resists efforts for external regulation. She then seeks to delineate the layers of our digital infrastructure, “the stack.”

Furthermore, the whole infrastructure has been turned into a weapon. “Zero day” vulnerabilities in code render all systems subject to cyberattack. Cyber trading of cryptocurrencies can make and unmake fortunes. Datamining can scrape all kinds of private data for law enforcement, a form of illegal search and seizure. And social media platforms combined with AI can generate huge and convincing amounts of misinformation. Meanwhile, the same tech industry seeks to frame the conversation as over-regulatory governments stifling the advance of new and beneficial technologies, even while tech company interests have supplanted the public interest.

The final part of the book is a call for international governments to reassert their role, not to stifle technology, but to ensure that it serves the public interest. This especially needs to engage the world’s four major digital powers: the U.S., the EU, India, and China. That seems challenging because of differing political situations and priorities. Finally, she argues for prioritizing the public. This includes curbing anti-democratic technology: spyware, databrokers, facial recognition, and cryptocurrency. She advocates for transparency and public accountability and the creation of public digital infrastructure.

The strength of this book is its analysis of how Big Tech has gained such a dominant influence. Likewise, as an insider, she offers great insights of how Big Tech maintains and extends its influence. The challenge is the role of government in protecting democratic institutions. It seems the EU has done the most. In the U.S., however, it feels like Big Tech has paid in the form of political contributions to avoid regulation. Furthermore, it is most troubling to see the selective vigilance over the weaponization of digital resources. We fight TikTok while actually utilizing anti-democratic technology. Furthermore, we are not preparing for cyberattacks.

Part of the challenge is the complexity. Perhaps a start is using the lens of the public good consistently throughout. The question, I think, is how to mobilize public advocacy, which the author doesn’t discuss. Such advocacy is proving effective on particular issues, like curbing datacenters, perhaps one of the most visible aspects of Big Tech. But what about those that are less visible?

Schaake’s book, nevertheless, offers crucial analysis of the whole industry and the dangers it poses. And pointing to the question of the public interest seems crucial. And that is a good beginning.

Review: Enabling Grace

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Cover image of "Enabling Grace" by Susan Mathew

Enabling Grace

Enabling Grace, Susan Mathew. Langham Global Library (ISBN: 9781839732782) 2025.

Summary: A disability reading of Paul’s letters focusing on 2 Corinthians 12:7b–10, asserting the grace of God amidst human weakness.

In recent years the church has begun to recognize the importance of welcoming and supporting those with disabilities. In the U.S., it is estimated that 28.7 percent of our people have some form of disability. The reality is that that at some point in our lives, most of us will have some form of disability. In all our communities, this group represents a significant part of our mission field.

Much of the writing has focused on what churches can do to accommodate persons with disabilities. Increasing thought is also being given to how we support families of those with disabilities. For most of us, when asked for the biblical grounds for such work, we might appeal to both the Great Commandments to love God and neighbor and the Great Commission to make disciples of all the nations and those within them.

But how does God regard, and how ought we regard those with disabilities? Dr. Susan Mathew is uniquely equipped to address these questions. She not only has a doctorate in biblical studies and teaches New Testament at Faith Theological Seminary in Kerala, India. She is the parent of a son, Jyothish, with cerebral palsy. As she sought to address the needs of her son, she recognized many other families in Kerala with children with special needs. This led to founding the Deepti Special School and Rehabilitation Centre, which she directs. Thus, she combines biblical scholarship and extensive personal experience in this book.

Her focus is on select letters of the Apostle Paul, his use of the language of weakness including his “thorn in the flesh.” She considers how God works in human weakness and how the body of Christ may honor its weakest members. Mathew begins by addressing definitions and models of disability. She also identifies the passage in 1 and 2 Corinthians she will discuss. She lists the words used, with a focus on asthenia or “weakness.” Before turning to more detailed examination of relevant passages, she discusses disability in antiquity. Sadly, the fate of infants with disability was abandonment and death. In Judaism, disabilities excluded people from temple service. Many viewed disabilities as the result of sin or God’s curse.

Then chapter three considers God’s choice of the weak and foolish, described in 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:7. God works through the ultimate expression of weakness, the foolishness of the cross to subvert society’s norms and worldly wisdom. God identifies with and choose the weak as objects of his grace. Chapter four then turns to Paul’s teaching on gifts and the interdependence of the body of Christ. Among the gifted are those with disabilities, revealing God’s power working through human weakness. This calls for mutual concern and the honor of the less honorable. Above and over all is the love of 1 Corinthians 13. Chapter four also deals with 1 Corinthians 15 and the resurrection of the body. In this is both continuity and discontinuity, most notably, the transformation of all weakness and disability.

But what hope is there for the suffering and affliction caused by disabilities in this life? Chapter five turns to this question, looking at 2 Corinthians 1:3-10 and 12:7-10. Mathew considers the role of patient endurance, our partnership in suffering, and the comfort we have in Christ. Then she turns to an in depth study of Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.” She explores what this may have been, Paul’s prayer and how Christ met him in weakness.

The final chapters unpack all this. Chapter 6 recounts the author’s personal story and her experience of God’s power in her Christian community. In the final chapter, she explores what a holistic theology of grace means in the context of disability, including how Paul’s disability deepened his understanding of enabling grace.

This book is a good beginning toward a theology of disability. Coupled with the author’s personal testimony, it speaks powerfully of God’s enabling grace for persons with disabilities. And it calls us to be communities of mutual care and interdependence, recognizing the grace and gifts of God on those with disabilities.

_______________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: The Joy of Solitude

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Cover image of "The Joy of Solitude" by Robert J. Coplan

The Joy of Solitude

The Joy of Solitude, Robert J. Coplan. Simon & Schuster (ISBN: 9781668053423) 2025.

Summary: A study of the complexities of solitude and how it can enrich our lives and relationships.

I’ve read a number of books discussing solitude from a spiritual perspective. But this is the first from a secular perspective. Robert J. Coplan is a psychologist who has been studying solitude for thirty years. It all began when he was observing children at play and the different ways they reacted to playing alone. He was curious why some were content to do so, while welcoming others to join them but others were more uneasy about this.

That’s an example of how solitude can mean different things for different people. And it’s not always something we like. In one experiment students were asked to spend fifteen minutes alone in a room. They also had the option to self-administer painful electric shocks. For the majority, sitting alone with one’s thoughts was more aversive than the electric shocks!

But what is solitude? Is it physical separation from others? Does this include animals? Can one experience solitude on a crowded commuter train? Or walking through an art gallery? Turns out all of those can be forms of solitude, So why does solitude get a bad rap? Often, it is because it is rightly believed that it is good for us to be with others and not alone. And extended solitude, especially in childhood can be bad for social development. Forced solitude from ostracism or isolation, leading to loneliness has all kinds of negative impacts. We don’t want that!

But there are times we do want to be away from people. And it seems the key difference between good and bad solitude is in whether we want it. Solitude offers a sense of freedom. Research has also shown that time in natural environments makes us feel calmer, happier, less anxious. A key element is the deactivation of emotions and the fostering of attention. Perhaps that’s why solitude has benefits of both creativity and connectedness. Not only that, there is a “goldilocks factor.” We each have a “just right.”

There is a balance between solitude and socializing, unique for each of us. But the quality of both is important. Alone time just spent ruminating as opposed to engaging in activities like hobbies, reading, or being outside. Temperament also matters. Introverts welcome solitude to a greater degree but introversion is about more than solitude. On the other hand, introverts also under-estimate how short social interactions can positively affect them.

Coplan then gets into how we can do solitude better. Our attitude is important. Those who understand the benefits have a more positive experience. Sometimes, it even helps to “fake it until you make it.” He encourages a journal to track our time to notice what is most helpful. There is no one right way. Like exercising, starting with small doses and building up can help. Even just fifteen minutes can make a difference in our sense of well-being. And avoid ruminating!

He also explores how solitude helps creativity by letting our minds wander. When working on a problem, taking a break and switching helps incubate new ideas. Solitude also allows us to achieve a state of “flow.” Like many others, he advocates solitude from our devices. He invites us to cultivate “JOMO,” the Joy Of Missing Out. At least we should turn off notifications, and avoid scrolling through newsfeeds.

He offers advice on solitude and children. For younger children building solitude muscles by choosing how they’ll spend time alone (but not on screens) can benefit them. Older children, on the other hand, may have so many schedule demands that they need help carving out alone time. And parents also need alone time (and can model this!). And alone time can enhance time together, including for couples.

I found the discussion distinguishing good and bad solitude and the diverse activities that one may pursue in solitude to be helpful. There were so many helpful, practical ideas for finding the right mix of solitude and socializing for each person with lots of permission to experiment. I loved the suggestions for creativity.

I mentioned the practice of solitude as a spiritual practice. While the book takes a secular, mental health approach to this, I think a non-sectarian discussion of solitude and spirituality might have enriched this book, since this is a place where many are introduced to solitude, often with helpful direction.

That said, this is a helpful introduction to the benefits of solitude, and the opportunity to become one’s own best friend.

_______________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Knowing Christ Today

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Cover image of "Knowing Christ Today" by Dallas Willard

Knowing Christ Today

Knowing Christ Today, Dallas Willard. Harper Collins (ISBN: 9780062311795) 2014 (first published in 2009).

Summary: Why the knowledge of Christ is real knowledge of true things on which one may base one’s life and confidently speak.

I’ve encountered it. Statements like “God exists,” Christ died to save us,” Christ is risen” and many others are treated quite differently from E=MC2. We treat the former as opinions or sentiments whereas we treat the latter as a statement of fact. We relegate the former to the category of “faith” whereas the latter is “knowledge.”

In this book Dallas Willard argues to the contrary, that Christian belief is equally a form of knowledge, accurately representing reality, based upon evidence. We may act upon this knowledge. Faith is not “blind” but acting upon the known. Not only that, Willard goes on to argue that this is indispensable knowledge, without which we perish into some form of idolatry, as Willard points out in contrasting other worldviews to Christian belief. Furthermore, Willard goes on to argue that the rejection of Christian knowledge has been accompanied by the disappearance of moral knowledge

But how does Willard make the case for Christian belief as true knowledge? In chapter four, he puts forth a form of the cosmological argument for the existence of a creator. He then puts forth a case for God’s activity in the world, including his active intervention in miracles culminating in the resurrection of Jesus.

But how does one live out the knowledge of Christ? Chapter 6 pulls together strands from other works on entering the kingdom with humble obedience and the practice of spiritual disciplines in community. The concluding chapter 8 discusses the role of preachers, calling them to base their preaching upon this knowledge.

However, Christians have often come off as arrogant know-it-alls? How is the assertion of Christian faith as true knowledge to avoid this in a religiously pluralistic world? First of all, he asks whether believing oneself right about something and others wrong is inherently arrogant? Or is it possible to be humble and loving about our disagreements? Then he recognizes the value of a “weak” pluralism that affirms the good wherever we find it. Yet no true believer would say it makes no difference what one believes. However, there is the troubling question of the fate of those who never hear the gospel. While affirming that salvation is always by grace and through Christ, he joins Billy Graham in affirming that these are decisions only God will make.

This work is important for Christians who feel faith is relegated to the personal and private. It helps them understand both how this has come about and why its wrong. Without extensive excursions into epistemology or apologetics, it outlines why Christian belief is real knowledge. However this reveals a shortcoming of the work. It makes arguments without dealing with why many have challenged them. But that would require a much longer book. That said, this work helps restore a humble confidence in believing and proclaiming Christ.

The Weekly Wrap: April 5-11

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The Weekly Wrap: April 5-11

They Made It Too Well

I was among many Kindle users who received this email, which I will quote in part, from Amazon:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for being a longtime Kindle customer. We’re glad our devices have served you well for as long as they have. Starting May 20, 2026 — 14 to 18 years after their initial launches — we are discontinuing support for Kindle devices released in 2012 or earlier. Here’s what this means for you:

* You can continue to read books already downloaded on these devices, but you will not be able to purchase, borrow, or download additional books on them after that date.
* If you deregister or factory reset these devices, you will not be able to re-register or use these devices in any way.

Affected devices include Kindle 1st and 2nd Generation, Kindle DX and DX Graphite, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle 4, Kindle Touch, Kindle 5, and Kindle Paperwhite 1st Generation.

I have used a Kindle Keyboard to read e-books. It was registered January 30, 2012. I like it for mysteries, science fiction, and other books I’m not interested in putting on physical shelves. I’ve read hundreds of books and have hundreds more stored on it. Most important of all, it works! It’s lasted longer than any other electronic device I’ve used. If nothing else, whoever manufactured it for Amazon built it well. So well, in fact, that I planned to keep using it until it died. I love the low glare screen and the ability to set font sizes.

Well, it appears I can still use it until it dies or as long as I don’t de-register it. But after next month, I won’t be able to download new books. No one with a pre-2013 Kindle will be able to do that.

I’ve heard a lot of us old Kindle users are furious. I’m not happy about it. Amazon’s solution, unless you use the Amazon app on other devices, is to buy a new Kindle e-reader, the base cost for which is $109. To ease the pain, they are offering a 20 percent discount and a $20 credit on e-books.

I haven’t made up my mind on what to do. I’m not crazy about Amazon in general. It seems to me this is a great time for other e-book platforms to lure new customers. I might just jump ship if a competitor offers a good deal (hint, hint!). Want to know more about what’s behind Amazon’s email? Here’s a good article I found.

Five Articles Worth Reading

Many of us have had notions of reading “the Great Books.” Ted Gioia has created a 52-week humanities program. In “How to Read the Great Books in 52 Weeks,” he’s interviewed by one of his readers who completed the course.

Are you troubled by the world we are leaving to our children and grand-children? I am. But how are the children doing with that? Tae Keller’s new children’s novel, When Tomorrow Burns, explores through the eyes of three seventh graders the question “What do you do when your biggest fear comes true?” Craig Morgan Teicher reviews this new book in “Kids: It’s Not All on You to Save the World.”

Rebecca Ackerman argues for human ghostwriters as “The Literary Job AI Can’t Replace.”

It inspired Ray Bradbury. And it launched the careers of many science fiction writers. In “How Amazing Stories Served as the Blueprint for American Science Fiction,” Ed Simon chronicles the history of this pulp publication.

So, it must be Ed Simon week! In a different publication, he explores the influence of Francis Bacon on the scientific research enterprise on the quadricentenary of his death. “The Man Who Invented the Future” explores the complicated legacy of his 1620 Novum Organum.

Quote of the Week

Irish poet George William Russell was born April 10, 1867. He offers this counsel for anyone engaged in some form of “resistance” or activism:

“We may fight against what is wrong, but if we allow ourselves to hate, that is to insure our spiritual defeat and our likeness to what we hate.”

Miscellaneous Musings

I received an unusual gift yesterday. She Teaches Me Still is a memoir of Phyllis Strong LePeau, who died in 2022. It is written by her husband, Andrew T. LePeau. Phyllis was one of the most joyful and caring people I ever knew. I look forward to reading this account…and remembering.

I am thoroughly enjoying Frank Deford’s dual biography of Christy Mathewson and John McGraw, The Old Ball Game. Their time together with the New York Giants transformed baseball as one of the greatest pitchers and greatest managers, respectively.

I’m reading Tom Holland’s Dominion, subtitled “How the Christian Revolution Remade the World.” Others have raved about this book. So far, I’m less than impressed, making me wonder what I’m not getting.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Dallas Willard, Knowing Christ Today

Tuesday: Robert J. Coplan, The Joy of Solitude

Wednesday: Susan Mathew, Enabling Grace

Thursday: Marietje Schaake, The Tech Coup

Friday: Frank Deford, The Old Ball Game

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap  for April 5-11.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

Review: Stones Still Speak

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Cover image of "Stones Still Speak" by Amanda Hope Haley

Stones Still Speak

Stones Still Speak, Amanda Hope Hailey. Revell (ISBN: 9780800746483) 2025.

Summary: Shows how biblical archaeology helps us understand the context of scripture, sometimes correcting misunderstandings.

Amanda Hope Hailey is a Harvard-trained archaeologist, speaking and writing as The Red-Haired Archaeologist. The focus of her work is to show how archaeological research helps us understand the context of the Bible. She does not treat biblical archaeology as a form of apologetics, providing confirmations of the truth of the Bible or of Christianity. In fact, she honestly admits where archaeology is unable to confirm things in the Bible, including the lack of evidence for Israel’s first three kings. For her, that doesn’t cast doubt on the biblical accounts. She writes: “Holy Scripture is God-breathed. It does not require or even request that humans dig into our planet’s crust to find physical evidence of its truths. It is Truth.” She also shows how what we have learned in archaeology sometimes corrects misunderstandings of Bible stories we learned in Sunday School.

After introducing the work of biblical archaeology, she walks through a number of familiar biblical accounts. For each, she offers background and context, often drawing on archaeology, but not always. She begins with the creation accounts discussing why there are two different accounts, as well as discussing key words like “day.” Her observation is that there was no editing or blending of the two accounts. She explores the various efforts to discover Noah’s ark and makes the common sense observation that after the flood, the ark probably provided building materials, since these would have been scarce. She sets Abraham in the Middle Bronze Age, discusses his sons, his travels, and his tomb.

When it comes to Joseph, she set him in the context of the Pharaohs as well as the invasion of the Hyksos, which set a precedent for foreign rulers. We also learn that a better translation for Joseph’s coat might be “long-sleeved” rather than “many-colored,” an artifact of the Septuagint translation. Haley considers possible explanations for Moses miracles, including the parting of the sea. She’s honest in saying we have no evidence, despite the proposed explanations.

When it comes to David and Goliath, many of our tellings exaggerate both Goliath’s size and David’s smallness. If he wrestled beasts in tending sheep, he was likely a full-grown adult. Likewise, Goliath probably was about seven feet–tall but not giant. Finally, slings were a potent weapon that could fling a stone at 150 miles per hour. Haley emphasizes how God had prepared David for this encounter. Considering the absence of evidence for Solomon, despite his greatness, she suggests his disobedience contributed to the disappearance of his name.

Then there is Jonah. While we have no clue what swallowed him beyond the “great fish” of scripture, we do know a lot about the Assyrian civilization and the city to which he went. She raises the intriguing question of what might have happened had Jonah preached more than his minimalist message. Likewise, we have no clue what happened to the ark of the covenant, other than it was carried off, “plundered” according to a deuterocanonical text. It’s not in an army warehouse! Haley also fills in the important history of the so-called “silent years.”

Finally, she touches more briefly on the New Testament. As have others, she observes the word translated “inn” more likely meant an upstairs bedroom used for guests. Instead, Joseph and Mary found shelter in a first floor living area, also used for the family’s animals. She discusses the sites of Jesus ministry and death.

What Haley emphasizes is how important contexts (and sometimes good translations) are to understanding the Bible. She offers a wealth of this in the text and sidebars throughout the book. However, I was surprised, and perhaps disappointed that there was not more archaeology. There are no images or diagrams. Given the title and subtitle, I was expecting more of that. But she does model how archaeology interacts with our study of scripture and other texts helping us understand context. And this is a good model for beginning students of scripture.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Vigil

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Cover image of "Vigil" by George Saunders

Vigil

Vigil, George Saunders. Random House (ISBN: 9780525509622) 2026.

Summary: Jill Blaine is a spirit who consoles the dying but her current charge needs no consoling, leading her to reexamine her short life.

She’s descending to earth, her body and clothing reconstituted as she falls. “She” is Jill “Doll” Blaine, an “elevated” spirit whose task is to console the dying in their last hours, helping them to come to terms with their regrets, fears, the unfinished. She’s done this 343 times.

But K. J. Boone is different. Lying in his bed in his stately Texas mansion, he doesn’t think he needs consolation. As she searches his thoughts she found “a formidable stubbornness. A steady flow of satisfaction, even triumph, coursed through him, regarding all he had managed to do, see, cause, and create, especially given his humble origins.” And she found no doubts, even as he lay dying of cancer.

Boone was an oil tycoon who rose from working on rigs to leading one of the largest oil companies. At the height of his powers, he gave a speech “debunking” the science of global warming that became a standard reference for deniers. He was a fierce defender of his industry, and all that it had made possible.

But she was not to be left alone with him. Other “spirits” attempt to show him the error of his ways. The Frenchman who invented the internal combustion engine. People who suffered the effects of climate change. And many more from his past. None shake his self-justifications. But many try to make him accountable.

But this shakes her. She recalls how she died as a newlywed. She was blown up by a car bomb meant for her husband. So, she leaves her charge to revisit her Indiana hometown. She enters the mind of the man who planted the bomb. Like Boone, he had no regrets. He considered it an inevitability.

Accountability versus inevitability. Jill wrestles with what that meant in her short life, and what that means for dealing with her charge and the parade of spirits besieging him as his life wanes away. In other words, was it right to assist the spirits trying to wrangle a deathbed turn-of-heart out of him? Conversely, was there a kind of inevitability to the trajectory of his life, one that justified his self-satisfaction? That is to say, did he simply fulfill a predestined course?

These are unsettling questions–the kind that leave you thinking when you’ve put the book aside for other things. Some want Boone to be responsible for the terrible things he unleashed, although Boone pokes at the pretensions of those fueling their environmental activism with his oil. However we think of these things, we think choices matter and want people to be responsible. Yet are not people a part of things larger than themselves that shape them?

It’s a question Christian theologians have wrestled with for two millenia. Are human beings responsible? Yes. Is God sovereign and does God predestine? Yes. I have not met anyone who has satisfactorily explained how both can be so. Yet both things somehow have a ring of truth, explaining something of the way the world is, kind of like light as both a particle and a wave.

And that is what Saunders would have us wrestle with. Is life complicated enough that we must live with the tension? But it seems that all Saunders would afford the dying is comfort for lives they cannot change. However, what if there were the possibility of grace?

Review: Not Quite Kosher

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Cover image of "Not Quite Kosher by Stuart M. Kaminsky

Not Quite Kosher

Not Quite Kosher (Abe Lieberman, 7), Stuart M. Kaminsky. Forge Books (ISBN: 9781429912631) 2002

Summary: Lieberman juggles two murder cases, one with multiple deaths including a cop, a bar mitzvah, a partner’s wedding and more.

Sometimes a lot of life happens at once. At home, Lieberman is involved in bar mitzvah plans for his grandson, mainly in figuring out how to stretch the family budget to pay for everything and leave something to repair the roof. Meanwhile, his partner Hanrahan is moving up his wedding date to marry Iris Chin–to this week, with a reception at the Liebermans! This, despite Iris’s family disapproval and threats which Lieberman cleverly handles through the leader of one of Chicago’s gangs. And he even manages to book Senator Joe Lieberman (no relation) to speak for a synagogue fund-raiser.

Then there is the work. A group of young thugs attacks a depressed store owner. Only it doesn’t turn out so well. The man, Arnold Sokol, defends himself well enough to chase two of the young men off and land the other in the hospital. Lieberman and his rabbi help settle things with the young man in the hospital, or so they think. But the next day, Sokol’s badly beaten body washes up in the lake.

Actually, that’s just one of two bodies that wash up. The other is a man called Pryor, involved in Lieberman’s other case. Him and Michael Wychovski rob a jewelry store–the same one they robbed a year ago. Only this time, things don’t turn out so well. On the way out, Pryor stumbles and his gun goes off, killing the owner. Then, while Wychovski drives, he fires on pursuing police, killing one of them. But they manage to elude capture-until Pryor’s body washes up along with Sokol’s.

I love the great relationship between Lieberman and Hanrahan, punctuated with food stops and ever-present reminders about Lieberman’s cholesterol. Each has gotten the other out of trouble on more than one occasion. I also love the philosophic decency of Lieberman–his companionable marriage, his acceptance of his difficult daughter, and his loyalty to his brother Maish and the alter cockers. He’s a man people trust, from Kearney, his boss to a somewhat unstable gang leader.

The reader trusts him as well, even to catching the real killer of Arnold Sokol. My only regret is that Kaminsky only wrote ten installments in this series. Having read most of the Rostnikov and Lieberman stories, perhaps it’s time to check out Toby Peters and Lew Fonseca, his two other crime solvers.